ACT FAST: American Airlines Business Class Award Space to Europe

American Airlines has released Business Class award space between the United States and Europe, primarily for the spring but also further into 2018 as well. This is news because American Airlines doesn’t normally have so much premium cabin SAAver level award space, and in regards to the European award space, the majority of the other award space bookable with American Airlines miles to Europe is on British Airways which incurs ridiculously expensive fuel surcharges.

I would act quickly if you want to book this any of this award space as it is already drying up and won’t last much longer.

Product

To see what kind of Business Class seat the plane has, check the aircraft type by clicking the Aircraft type link (on the flight schedule results page when you click a specific day from the calendar and then click Flight Details).

The pop-up lists American Airlines’ planes and the seat pitch of each class on each type of plane.

The example above is for Raleigh to London, which has lie-flat Business seats.

Award Space

From what I checked, I can see a good amount of SAAVer level (the cheapest and typically only space worth booking) Business Class award space for two travelers now through April of 2018 between New York and London. I also saw a lot of award space for two travelers between Raleigh and London through the beginning of March, and a sunny patch for two travelers between Dallas and London the second half of March. There are some days with even more award seats, and even more days with award space for just one traveler. Checking later in the year around October and November should yield a decent amount of space for two travelers as well.

According to View from the Wing, other American hubs like Philadelphia, Chicago, Miami, and Charlotte have less space than the New York and Raleigh routes do. You should check other European destinations as well, I just wanted to get this post up as soon as possible before space dried up.

I chose American Airlines only flights in the Advanced search options when looking at award space to Europe to eliminate any British Airways flight results which incur high fuel surcharges, and Finnair award space which is often phantom.

I also isolated direct flights in my search results, to eliminate the number of connections necessary (in case you need to add another American or Alaska flight from your hometown–see the Connections section of this post below). To do this, on the left side of the search results page that displays the calendar, check “Non-stop only” in the drop-down menu next to Number of Stops:

All of the following calendars show award space for two travelers.

New York (JKF) to London

London to New York (JFK)**

**Beware Returning From London

Every time you book an award with frequent flyer miles, you are responsible for paying government taxes associated with the award ticket.

Britain and France charge higher taxes for departing in Business and First Class. (I really just mean Britain, the island with England, Scotland, and Wales. Northern Ireland does not charge extra to fly a premium cabin, perhaps to compete with low Irish departure taxes.)

Connections

If you don’t live in any of the cities mentioned above, you can still take advantage of this space. New York City (JFK) and Dallas are hubs for American Airlines with flights to most of the country, and from Raleigh you can fly to Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Washington, D.C.

On the other end, if you don’t want to go to just Longon, remember you can always tack on a Saver level award flight one a oneworld partner to elsewhere in the region for no extra miles.. You can tack on economy, Business, or First Class Saver award space on American or Alaska to these international flights for zero extra miles. Just remember tacking on a British Airways flight will incur some fuel surcharges… although not all that much.

If you care more about travel insurance, check out our post that goes over the travel protection benefits of nine popular travel rewards cards.

Bottom Line

If you’ve got AAdvantage miles you’ve been saving, book your trip to Europe in American Airlines Business Class now. The cheapest level award space–SAAver level–is typically not so available in a premium cabin.

Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.

The comments section below is not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all questions are answered.

Sarah Page Maxwell became a miles nerd after moving her base to Buenos Aires and beginning a transient lifestyle that would be otherwise too expensive without miles and points. In addition to travel, her other passions include hot sauce, yoga, and her boston terrier Omar.

[…] AA Biz Class Award Space to Europe: Here lately American Airlines has been super stingy with releasing award space in business and first class. When they do show award availability, make sure to jump on that opportunity! […]

[…] to fly one way in Business Class to Europe. On January 24th I wrote about a batch of newly released AAdvantage Business Class award space to Europe. It has been picked over since that post, but you can still find lots of seats for a solo […]

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Sarah Page Maxwell is a miles aficionado and avid traveler, born in Virginia, raised in North Carolina, and currently based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has earned and redeemed millions of miles for herself and others. Traveling for free, the 29-year-old has been to 20+ countries, making sure to catch as many sunsets in each that she can.

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Many of the credit card offers that appear on this site are from credit card companies from which MileValue.com receives compensation if you are approved. Compensation impacts placement of cards on the credit card page and banner placement, but does not on the articles posted on MileValue.com. This site does not include all credit card offers available in the marketplace.

Many of the credit card offers that appear on this site are from credit card companies from which MileValue.com receives compensation if you are approved. Compensation impacts placement of cards on the credit card page and banner placement, but does not on the articles posted on MileValue.com. This site does not include all credit card offers available in the marketplace.